The clarion., 1887-03-16

this morning a.. Rev T. Dewitt Talmage, |
ID, expouaG appropriate passages of
Scripture lie then gave out the hymn be-
ginning:
Must Jesus bear the cross alone,
And all the world 20 frees
Mo- there's cross for every one,
And there's cross for me.
The subject Of his discourse was Singing
Annoyance and his text Deuteronomy vii,
%: "The Lord thy God win send tho hornet
He said:
IL seems as if the insect world were de-
termined To war against the human race. 1t
b every year attacking the grain fields and
the orchards and the vineyards The Colo
RADIO beetle, the Nebraska grasshopper the
New Jersey locust, the universal potato de
stroyer seem 10 carry on the work which
was begun ages ago when the insects buzzed
out Of Noah's ark as the door was opened.
In my text the hornet flies out on its mis-
sion II is n suecies Of wasp, swift in its mo-
ton and violent in its sting Its touch IS tor
ture n man or beast. We have all seen the
cattle ran betlowiuz from the cut OF its Ian
cet In b0vAo9i we used 20 stand cautiously
looliBg II The globular nest hung from the
tree branch and while we were looking at
the wonderful pasteboard covering we were
struck with 4Huathilg that sent as shrieking
away. Tine hornet goes in swarms. 1t has
captains Ovor hundreds, and twenty Of them
attacking ono man VIII produce certain death.
The Persians attempted to conquer a Chris
tian city, but the elephants and the beasts on
which the Persians rode were assaulted by
the hornets, so that the whole army was
broken up and the b.sieged city was rescued.
This burning and nOxious insect stung out the
Hittites and Cananntes from their country
What tho cleaning sword and chariot Of war
could not accomplish was done by the pune
ture Of an insect The Lord sent the hornet
Ny friends, when we are assaulted bv
behemoths Of trouble--great behemoths of
trouble-we become chivalric, and we assault
them; we get on the high mettled steed Of
our courage, and make q cavalry charge
at them, and, if God be with u.s. we come out
stronger and better than when we went
in But, alas for these insectile annoyances
of lf,-these foes too small 30 shOot-these
things without any avoirdupois weight-the
gnats, and tbs midges, and the flies, and the
wasps and the hornctsl In other words,
it IS the small singing annoyances of our
life which drive Us ont and use us up. Into
the best conditioned life, for some grand and
glorious purpose, God sends the hornet.
/ remark in the first place that these small,
singing annoyances may come in the shape
Of a sensitive nervous organization People
who are prostrated under typhoid fevers or
WIN DfOheu bDie6 Eel pltnty OF sympathy,
but who pites anybody that is nervouss The
doctors say, and the family says, and every
body says, "Oh' she's only a little nervous:
that's all" The sound of heavy foot, the
harsh clearing of "a throat a discord in music
a want of harmony between the shawl and
the glove on the same person, n curt answer,
passing slight. tho wind from the east any
one Of ten thousand annoyances opens the
door for the hornet The fact is that the vast
majority Of the people in this country are
overworked, and their nerves are the first to
give out. A great multitude under the
strain Of Leyden, who, when he was told by
his physicians that if he did not stop working
while he was in such poor physical health he
would die, responded, doctor, whether l live
or die the wheel must keep going around"
These persons Of whom l speak have bleed
ing sensitiveness. The flies love to light on
anything raw, and these people are like the
Canaanites spoken of in the text or in the
context-they have a very thin covering and
are vulnerable at all points And the Lord
sent the hornet.
Again, these small insect annoyances may
come to us in the shape of friends and ac-
quaintances who are always saying disagree
able things. There are some people you can
not be with for half an hour but you feel
cheered and comforted. Then there are other
people you cannot be with for five minutes
before you feel miserable. They do not mean
to disturb you but they sting You to the bone
They gather up all the yarn which the gossips
spin, and peddle it. They gather up all the
adverse criticisms about your person, about
your business, about your home, about your
church, and they make your ear the funnel
into which they pour it, They laugh heartily
when they tell you, as though it were a good
joke, and you laugh too, outside. These peo-
Pile are brought TO our attention in the Bible,
in the book of Ruth; Naomi went forth
beautiful and with the finest of worldly pros
poets into another land, but after while she
came back widowed, and sick and poor.
What did her friends do when she came
back 10 the city! They all went out, and in
stead of giving her common sense consolation,
what did they do2 Read the book of Ruth
and find out They threw up their hands and
said as this Naomil7 as much as to say:
"How very bad you look!n When 1 entered
the ministry | looked very pale for years, and
every year, for four or five years, a hundred
times year, was asked if l was not in a
consumption And passing through the room
would sometimes hear people sigh and cry:
"A-ahl not long for this world" resolved
in those times that never, in any conversa-
ton, would say anything depressing, and by
the help of God have kept the resolution.
These people Of whom | speak reap and bind
in the great harvest field of encouragement.
Some days you greet them with a hilarious
"Good morning." and they come buzzing at
you with some depressing information. The
Lord sent the hornet.
II is astonishing how some people prefer TO
write and to say disagreeable things. That
was the case when years ago Henry NJ Stan
ley returned after his magnificent exploit of
finding DR. David Livingstone and when Mr..
Stanley stood before the savants of Europe,
and many of the small critics of the day, un-
der pTetense of getting geographical informa-
tion, put to him most insolent questions he
folded his arms and refused to answer At
the very time when you would suppose all
decent men would have applauded the hero
ism of the man there We're those to hiss. The
Lord sent the hornet And when, afterward,
that man sat down the western coast of
Africa sick and worn, perhaps, in the grand
est achievement of the age in the way of geo
graphical discovery, there were small critics
all over the world to buzz and buzz and carl
cature and deride him; and when a few
weeks after that he got the London papers,
as he opened them out flew the hornet.
When l see that there are SO many people
i'm the world who like to say disagreeable
things and write disagreeable things / come
almost in my weaker moments to believe
what man said to me in Philadelphia one
Monday morning. went to get the horse
that at the livery, and the hostler, a plain
man, said TO me: "Mr Talmage, / saw that
you preached TO the young men yesterday
/ said ayes" He said: mo use, no use;
mans failure"
The small insect annoyances of life some
times come in tho shape of a local physical
trouble, which does not amount to positive
prostration, but which bothers you when you
want to feel the best. Perhaps it has been
sick headache which has been the plague of
your life, and you appoint some occasion of
mirth or sociality usefulness and when
the clock strikes the hour you cannot mako
your appearance. Perhaps the trouble is be
tween the ear and the forehead, in the shape
of a neuralgia twinge. Nobody can see it or
sympathize with you, but just ct the time
when you want your intellect clearest and
your disposition brightest you feel "A sharp,
keen, disconcerting thrust. The Lord sent
the hornet.
Perhaps these small insect annoyances viii
come in the shape of a domestic irritation
The parlor and the kitchen do not always
harmonize. To get good service and to keep
it is one Of the great questions of the country.
Sometimes it may be the arrogancy and in
considerateness of employers; but whatever
be the fact. we all admit there are these in
sect annoyances winging their way out from
the culinary department. If the grace of
God be not in the heart of the house
keeper. she cannot maintain her equili-
brium. The men come home at night and
hear the story Of these annoyances, and say,
"Ohl these home troubles are very little
things They are small, small as wasps. but
they sting. Martha's nerves were all un-
strung when she rushed in asking Christ to
reprove Mary, and there are tens of thou
sands OF women who are dying, stung to
death by these pestiferous domestic annoy